Automatic Wireless Network Organisation

babycakes writes "Interesting article over at the BBC about the future of wireless networks. Researchers at Intel are developing mesh networking technology that automatically organizes the best routes between wireless devices for better bandwidth control, now that the number of wireless devices is set to explode." Neat stuff, but they've yet to implement any sort of security controls. Until they do, it's going to be a real party for wireless eavesdroppers. timothy adds: La Camiseta writes "Wired has an article discussing the extent that some people will go to in order to stay connected. My favorite is their 4-way SMP system that fits into a briefcase."

Comments

Security implications?

[tjansen]

I wonder what the security implications are. If every device is able to route, a malicious device could claim to have great connections to other devices in the mesh and then drop packets. Unless there is some way of authentication in the mesh (so that only authenticated devices can participate), it would need some trust/rating system so devices can exchange information about the reliability of other devices...

one word... MESHBOX

[Anonymous Coward]

So you wanta mesh networking? I givea youa the mesha networking...

Meshbox is a lightweight unix distro that does mesh networking over wifi and a gazillion other useful things.. ..fits in 32mb.. ..can also be bought with a an miniITX puter to run on... for just $400.. ..has potential to change the world... or at least the telco industry.. ..is cool.. ...is developed on the right side of the atlantic... :)

Whats the point of that Mini-ITX cluster?

[stratjakt]

I have to assume those are the 800mhz versions from the CPU fan, but still, these things have very little power from my experience with them. Cool little toys, maybe enough for a low-end workstation or terminal, but I wouldnt think of using one in a server situation.

I actually used one to run my squid-based proxy, and it was outperformed by the P200/MMX I wanted to replace.

Why cluster 4 of those? I'd think a 2 gig Celeron (of course P4 would be preferred) would have more power, faster DDR Ram, be as cheap (if not cheaper).

I cant fathom why one would cluster those little Eden boards, unless they were going for redundancy; a poor mans fault tolerant server.

Anyone?

Old Hat

[NimrodMCSE]

The company I work for has been doing this for over 2 years. Seems like Intel is way behind the curve on this one. You can see what we've been doing @ http://www.meshnetworks.com .

Being offline...

[MosesJones]

Is great, having those hours when no-one can contact you. Finding a hotel in a mobile blackspot. Being unable to pick up emails for days knowing that people will just have to cope.

I like being offline, I hate being forced to be online more, with the internet on planes now there goes 8 hours of peace and quiet without an urgent request to do something minor.

The more I'm online the less work that I do, because the more "noise" I receive. Being online all the time means more stupid IM requests, more emails to follow up and more calls asking about something they could have read in a book.

Next year you'll have articles on how far people go to kill their net connection.